Oz (Chapter)
Synopsis Oz is shown falling deeper within himself... Oswald asks Jack what he's doing as he comes across Jack climbing a tree beside Alice's tower. Jack explains that because Oswald wouldn't let him inside of the tower that he was trying to see if he could just climb in through Alice's window instead. Oswald asks Jack if he's an idiot and what he thought would happen to him if he fell. Alice hears Oswald and Jack's banter whilst she plays inside the tower with her dolls, the black and white rabbits, and her cat Cheshire. Jack explains that he didn't have another choice because Oswald wouldn't tell him anything about Alice, as he continues to climb the tree. Suddenly Jack loses his footing and falls to the ground from the tree, infront of an annoyed Oswald, just as Alice makes it to her window. Oswald asks Jack if he's alive, which makes Jack laugh as he confirms it. Alice asks who's there from her window, Jack exclaims as he sees Lacie instead of Alice, though he soon realises that she wasn't really Lacie. Oswald looks at Jack slightly unnerved and asks what Revis had told him about Alice. Jack tells Oswald that he wasn't told anything and Oswald asks if Revis only let Jack see Alice from the bottom of the tower. Jack confirms this and says that he didn't even know what the girls name was, although he'd hoped to hear it from Oswald himself. Oswald says something inaudiable, and Jack asks the girl in the window if her name really was Alice. Oz continues to fall, wondering if the memories he's viewing are really Jack's. Oz views the moment where Jack held his hand out to Oswald and started to help him up (the end of Retrace LXIX). Jack explains that he doesn't view Oswald as a replacement for Lacie, and that together they would work to bring Lacie back. Oswald immediately rips his hand out of Jack's and lashes out at Jack, asking what he was talking about as every essence of Lacie's existance was destroyed and bringing her back was an impossible task, stating that Jack can't just go off and decide something like that by himself. Jack thinks to himself that Oswald has stopped being Oswald and has instead become 'Glen', and as such, he can't know what Revis told him about Alice. Jack apologizes to Oswald, blushing, he says that he must've sounded pretty crazy... Jack now has full control of Oz's body. He stares at Leo, bleeding on the ground and asks if Glen was able to see him. Jack continues talking to 'Glen' and reveales that he was waiting for the Incuse to progress further before making an appearence, so the power of B-Rabbit would take over Oz's body, but due to recent events, his plan would develop before he would've liked it to. Jack picks up B-Rabbit's scythe and says goodbye to 'Glen' as he prepares to deliver a finishing blow to Leo/Glen. Vincent calls out for Gil inside the chamber of the 5th Seal, as does Break as he arrives, though he closes his eye and staggers when he enters the room. Gil tells Vincent that he finally remembers everything from 100 years ago, specifically his talk with Jiri and his coming into the Baskerville Dukedom, whilst he holds Oswald's head in his arms tightly. As Gil flashes back to the moment of the Tragedy, he reaches for his gun... Leo still lives, and Jack has stopped his attempt to kill him as Oz's essence has a hold on Jack's ankle inside of his head. Oz states that he won't allow Jack to kill Leo because he is Oz's friend, and Oz's body was his own, meaning that he wouldn't allow Jack to do whatever he wanted anymore. Jack tells Oz that he thought that he'd be able to see all of Jack's memories, but it seems that Oz wasn't able to see the most essential one, Jack soon realizes though that this is not the case and that the reality is that Oz rejected the memory instead. Jack calls Oz disobediant and corrects him on his mistake of calling their body Oz's. Jack pins Oz down as he tells Oz that his existence is nothingness and that everything he was had diminished, saying that Oz's existance can't really exist. Jack urges Oz to remember everything, though Oz tries to deny it once again. Jack asks why Oz wants to deny the truth as in reality, what he's denying is what he'd always been searching for, wanting to know what his sin really was. Jack tells Oz that he did as he was told and searched for Alice's memories and that as such Cheshire made his move to try and stop Oz from doing this, allowing the fragment of Jack's soul tied to Cheshire's demension to come into contact with Oz. Oz then stopped Alice's obsession with searching for her memories by focussing on preventing Glen from returning, which Oz did well. Jack thanks Oz finally and tells him to accept 'this' as Oz sinks into another memory... Jack thinks about how Oswald isn't asking any questions, about Lacie's fall into the Abyss or Alice's existance, and that he was trying to be oblivious instead to help him cope, and that in reality he was just looking out of Alice like Jack was. Oswald didn't know about Revis and Lacie's experiment, and without Oswald knowing of it there wasn't anything to stop the experiment from happening. Oswald not knowing or understanding anything is what had tied him and Jack's hearts together. Jack then plots to use Oswald as his friend rather than his enemy to expose his weakness and use it to learn more about the Abyss, as Oswald stating that bringing Lacie back was impossible was an unacceptable thing. A series of flashbacks then shows a worried Arthur Barma, Raymond Nightray yelling at two hooded figures, Alice running into Jack's arms, a crazed Miranda Barma, Jack saving Vincent from being beaten on the streets for being a Child of Misfortune and Gil accepted by the Baskervilles. Oz continues to fall deeper into the memories. Oz exclaims when he sees Gil as a Baskerville, and starts to worry as the memories become hot. Oz soon realizes that he'd landed in the memories of the Tragedy of Sablier. Whilst traversing Sablier, Oz notices the curtain Jack appeared behind when he first met Oz. Oz sees Oswald demanding that Gil stay away, though too late as Jack slices his sword through Gil's back. Jack then appears to Oz and tells him that the truth is awaiting him. Oz tries to fight Jack, stating that he doesn't want to go with him. Through the curtain, Oz sees Jack and Oswald facing each other, swords drawn. Jack asks Oswald what's wrong and Oswald asks that Jack casts his sword away at once. Jack then explains that he never wanted to hurt Oswald and the others in this way, Gil lays at his feet and Jack's sword still drips with his blood. Suddenly Oswald moves with supernatural speed and is infront of Jack within seconds. Oswald stops short of his attack as his sword his cut in half and chains run through his body. Oswald asks Jack what had happened, and Jack introduces Oswald to the Chain that formed a contract with him, The Black Rabbit, Oz. Oswald understands, by using his Chain, Jack was able to cut the chains and therby accept- Oswald is cut short as Oz asks Jack why he called him the B-Rabbit, as Alice was the B-Rabbit and he was her contractor. Numerous Baskervilles arrive to protect Oswald, Jack simply calls to his Chain, Oz. Oz tries to stop it because he doesn't want to kill, but B-Rabbit continues to massacre the Baskervilles. Oz questions what he'd seen, as he was Alice's contractor, Oz Vessalius, but also the B-Rabbit, the Chain that killed everyone. Suddenly Alice is behind him, she calls Oz her very special friend, and so they make a promise, that if she's ever in pain or being hurt that Oz would always come to save her. Oz finally sees who he really is and questions it because it is so small and powerless. Alice then tells her Black Rabbit doll that she loves him, and she calls him Oz. Characters *Oz Vessalius *Glen Baskerville *Jack Vessalius *Alice *Cheshire *Lacie (Hallucination) *Revis *Leo *Lotti *Vincent Nightray *Xerxes Break *Gilbert Nightray *Jiri *Arthur Barma *Raymond Nightray *Miranda Barma Trivia *Coupled with the released chapter was an ad that stated that a second Caucus Race novel would soon be released. *The events showed in this chapter are probably occurred shorty before the outbreak of the Tragedy of Sablier, shown under the story in the memories of Lottie, Fang and Doug. *This chapter bring to mind because his fake father called him "thing" (Ch. 40) and the fact that Zai Vessalius disappeared one night whit his real son, chanching the cribs (Ch. 46), and, perhaps, also explain becaus his sin is his very existence. *Alice says: "You are very special to me, when I'm sad, when I suffer, you'll be sure to save me, right?". Oz has already head this phrase in a flashback of Alice's memories showed in the Chechire Cat Dimension (Ch. 20). *When Oz defeated several Baskervilles in Isla Yura's mansion, he think to had already seen an identical scene (Ch. 59). The scene that Oz rembers is the one showed in this chapter, when, under Jack's order, he killed all the Baskervilles joints to rescue Glen/Oswlad, as a B-Rabbit. *Oz the B-Rabbit is presented as a grinning creature who loves destroy. Jack says to Oz: "you destroy everything". The desire to destroy that emerges in Oz when he uses his power of B-Rabbit his showed several times in the story and it is often connected to prevent Alice suffers. In chapter 41, Oz rembers that, despite anxiety and fear, he laghed while he killed. Category:Chapters